Messi, Suarez power Barca past Atletico Madrid

Barcelona, Spain (SportsNetwork.com) - Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez and Neymar all found the back of the net on Sunday as Barcelona rolled to a 3-1 victory over defending champions Atletico Madrid at the Camp Nou.

Rumors of a rift between Messi and manager Luis Enrique linger around the Camp Nou, but the potential effects of such an issue were not evident on the field on Sunday as Messi set up a goal and scored late on to pull Barcelona within one point of the top spot in La Liga.

The home side opened the scoring after 12 minutes when Suarez got a touch on a cross that found its way to Neymar at the back post and the Brazil international fired it home.

Suarez, the former Liverpool star, got into the scoring act for his second goal of the season in the 35th minute via a nice assist from Messi to double the advantage, but Atletico pulled one back in the 57th minute when former Bayern Munich man Mario Mandzukic converted a penalty kick.

But Messi made sure all three points went home with Barcelona when he put the result to bed with three minutes to play.

The win pulls Barcelona within one point of arch rivals Real Madrid, while Atletico remains in third place with 38 points from 18 matches played.

Also in La Liga on Sunday, Vicente Iborra de La Fuente and Coke found the back of the net in the second half to lift Sevilla to a 2-0 win over Almeria, while Victor Romero Rodriguez and Faycal Fajr scored to spot Elche a 2-0 lead against Athletic Bilbao.

Mikel San Jose found the back of the net with 17 minutes to play, pulling Bilbao within 2-1, but they could not find the equalizer as Elche came away with an important three points.

David Moyes' Real Sociedad grabbed a 1-0 lead over Granada in the 36th minute thanks to a penalty kick from Carlos Vela, but Granada responded with a penalty in the 79th minute from Fran Rico as the clubs played to a 1-1 stalemate.